Cross Country to Exeter. I have yet to fathom how the on-line booking system knows how much it is going to annoy me to be allocated a seat behind a window pillar, but some gremlin in there likes to ensure minimum visibility. Train commendably on time, however. The computer failed on the return, and I did have a window seat which included part of a window — and some scenery obligingly sunlit and pleasant. Train consisted of four coaches and hence was full and standing leaving Bristol, at which point the guard/conductor/train captain announced on the pa that this was due to the number of students going home for the weekend. So, it’s the passengers fault rather than decades of underinvestment, Virgin’s incredible decision to replace 8 coach trains with 4 or 5 coach ones in a time of passenger number growth, and the lack of spare stock because of the system where trains are leased from sharks like RBS. Renationalise say I !
And another day to Lincoln — change at Doncaster going and a pleasant potter across the flat fertile lands of Lincolshire on a one coach unit. Lincoln station has ticket barriers as do so many now — and no possibility of a platform ticket. Return via a change at Newark and again at Doncaster. Fair enough but the connections at about 15–20 minutes each (also at Doncaster on the way out) are ridiculously long compared to Holland and Germany and Switzerland, where they order these things much better.
